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Saturday, October 1, 2011

1 Month Down, 9 More to Go!

I can't believe that we have already been in school for 1 month! Where has the time gone? My class this year just might be one of the best I have had in my 8 year teaching career. They seem to be bright and eager to learn as well as mostly well behaved. This year I have decided to tackle the subject of Social Studies and attempt to make it more interesting to my students. Each year we get out the textbook, read, answers questions and at the end of the unit take a test. BORING!!!! As a student I loved learning about Social Studies and now as an adult, I love to go see historical sites and learn about history. I want to make it come alive for my students and see their faces light up with excitement about what they are learning.

The first unit we started with was geography talking about continents, our country, our state, our county, and our town. We studied all about the seven continents using interactive lessons and projects instead of cracking open our book. Our third grade team planned a 7 continent tour that took one whole afternoon in our multipurpose room. The students had a passport and loaded a "plane" to visit the continents. Our principal was our flight attendant and we videoed her telling the students where we would travel next, what the temp would be there, and what time it was there. We showed a quick in-flight video of each continent as we "flew" there. Upon arrival, each student created a craft that was associated with each continent.

My students loved the unit and it was much more successful at having them remember that we live in the state of North Carolina, rather than the saying our state is USA!